Policy & Compliance

9/19/2013

The Kathleen C. Wright Leadership Academy, a two-year-old school in Tamarac, appealed a state law that requires charter schools to be automatically closed after a second consecutive F. Schools can ask the state to stay open if they can show student achievement is better than other schools in the area.

When it comes to education policy, California and the Obama administration have gotten along about as well as the Clantons and the Earp brothers. They've clashed over teacher evaluations, Race to the Top grants, you name it. Now, the switch to the new Common Core curriculum could prove to be their O.K. Corral.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; the schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott; and senior education officials took a victory lap of sorts on Monday, visiting 22 New York City public schools that ranked among the state’s top 25 in reading and math exams given last spring.

Race to the Top has done little to help most states close achievement gaps, and may have exacerbated them, according to a new report by Elaine Weiss, National Coordinator of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education.

9/17/2013

A new proposal in the Michigan House of Representatives would set aside $10 million in state funds to help schools transition to a "year-round" calendar where students do not have the traditional lengthy summer break.

9/13/2013

A state board has voted to allow 13 school districts in Arkansas to continue using teachers, administrators, and other staff as armed guards, despite a warning from the state's top attorney that the licensing law they relied upon was intended for private businesses.

Diane Ravitch made her name in the 1970s as a historian chronicling the role of public schools in American social mobility. In the 1990s, she went to work in the Bush administration’s Education Department, where she pushed for a rejection of 1960s relativism and a return to basics and standards.

Without effective policy, any principal could try any new grading experiment, and have all students in a school receiving grades from the “pilot” without board knowledge or approval, or even superintendent knowledge or approval.

None of these so-called reforms has moved the needle in a positive direction. It’s outrageous that outside lobbyists peddle this long-expired brand of education to communities with the message that it will be the elixir for what ails their public schools.

In the 2014-2015 school year, approximately 40 states will use new online student assessments from PARCC and Smarter Balanced that will be based on the deeper and more rigorous Common Core State Standards. This article describes a state’s history with online assessments, the evolution of their infrastructure, their approach to training and communication with districts, and an in-depth look at what it took a district to implement the assessments.

State education officials said 170 charter groups met the deadline last Friday to submit letters of intent to be considered for opening in August 2015. Depending on how many meet a Dec. 6 deadline to submit an application, the state’s lineup of 130 charter schools could be in for a huge expansion.